Elektra
by Saffron Yellow
Summary: Play based on the story of Elektra


Elektra

Dramatis Personae

Elektra

Orestes

Chorus

The action takes place at the family grave of Agamemnon, Orestes and Elektra.

Enter Elektra and Chorus

Elektra: I remember when I was a child

I would run throughout the palace

High my spirits, wild my nature

No servant, no mother dared stop me

I was a terror that no threat of punishment would abate

Daddy would set me on his lap

To tell me to behave, I tried my best

For him I was good, I wanted him to smile

I'd sketch his face in wax with stylus

I'd play at some other quiet game

I know that he was pleased with me

He would give me a garland of crocuses

A crown made for his princess he'd call it

It made me smile when I was his princess

That all seems so long ago

Six years I have come to this, our family tomb

Again a little girl sitting on her father's lap

Finding comfort in his presence,

As she would after a long absence

I sit again in your shadow, Daddy

I'm still your princess, though I have no crown

Only blossoms of memories bedeck my head

Long were you gone, long have you been dead

My memories of you do not make me sad

I find peace here, I feel secure

There is neither peace, nor security

My mother sits upon the throne

Clytemnestra the bitch Queen of Argos

Her half a man consort calls himself king

Foolish claim from a foolish man

Yet all Argos believes the deception

AEgisthus, smooth skinned smooth voiced paramour

He shame to my father's throne; to my mother's bed

She butcher of my father, ruin of our family

The blood still stains her hand

Her crime remains unpunished

Even stones seem to shout for justice

Were it but in my power to bring

Weak are my woman's hands

Frail is my woman's heart

I am a prisoner to my gender

Unhappy fate has placed this yoke on me

I am my mother's unwanted spawn

I am her bastard princess

Chorus: There is no end to wickedness in this world

It is not right for crimes to remain unpunished

You have suffered much tragedy

It is not right for a princess to live alone.

Have you no husband to carry out your work?

Have you no son to pin your hopes?

Elektra: My loving parents feared that fate

That from my womb would spring a son

Which I would nurse with venom

Sing lullabies with an adder's tongue

They gave me in wedlock to a rude peasant

A man of no fortune, weak and weary from life

His hands worked raw from the fields

His face wrinkled from the sun

Were a son to be born he'd be no threat

A mirror of his father, slow of hand and speech

Chorus: This fate is cruel

Elektra: My parents could compel me to wed

They could compel me to live as his wife

Chorus: Has he consented to this?

How strange honorable man

To cool his lusts in presence of a princess

You are a jewel of Attica

Your eyes are rich as amber

Your skin is smooth as marble

Your lips are sweet as honey

A thousand stars shine in the sky

Not one is as dear as you

Who could resist a woman as such?

Elektra: Our nuptial rites were an ember

Pressed against my tender skin

Slowly burning through the flesh

Until it consumed what was me

And left the burnt remains of pain and rage

As the joyous wedding party departed from me

Clytemnestra's fools with sunshine smiles

I became a fury, roaring raging through the night

I lashed out everywhere I hurled what I could grasp

His dreams of sweetness turned to ash

He swore unto Zeus he'd not touch me

If only my vicious storm would pass

Chorus: A coward to hide from such a treasure

Elektra: A noble coward, he's kept his word

Chorus: Who will avenger your father now?

Elektra: I have a brother called Orestes

He was a boy when Daddy died

I sent him to the court of Strophius

Our uncle, the wise King of Phocis

Lest our dear mother kill him as a cub

Six years ago was that

Every year upon his day of birth

I've sent a letter to him

So he might remember his duty to the dead

Chorus: Duty? You've told him to kill his mother?

Elektra: I've told him to exact justice

The wise love justice more than kin

Justice is a pillar, the king's throne

Unjust and brutal are animals

But man and god bear capacity to be just

Even the fates have ordained such

Let the mouth of justice speak, let her cry out

Wicked and wretched, Clytemnestra mustn't live

That task justice demands

Chorus: Someone comes

(Enter Orestes)

Elektra: Who disturbs the grave of Argos royal family?

All ancestors have been forgotten in this land

The wretched nobles live their lives asleep

Forgetful of their duties to dead or to living

Orestes: I'm from the court of Phocis

Elektra: From King Strophius?

Have you news of Orestes?

Orestes: I bear sorrow's weight

A plague fell upon our city

A pestilence that spared no one high or low

The fever gripped Orestes' brow

Life's breath was choked out of him

He died a few days before his eighteenth year

Chorus: O horror

Orestes: I've brought this marble urn with his ashes

To be lain within the ancestral grave

Elektra: Did he die well, or cowardly?

Orestes: He died as the king he would have become.

Elektra (Takes and raises ashes)

Orestes, my brother, I never dreamt this

First our father's death, and now your own

I remember days now long past

I remember the fields we ran through as children

I watched over you as a mother should have

I believed in you; I always did

That one day you'd grow to be a great king

Then our sorrows came: Daddy's death

Our mother's marriage, your exile

What woe, what bitter fate

How kind the gods to strike me down

Our reunion this, a time of tears

Unfinished work is the balance of my thoughts

What can I do, is this my fate?

I shall become you, Orestes; I'll live your life

I'll change my women's weeds for manly garb

I'll learn to fight, I'll learn to kill

Be the fury that my mother fears

I am a storm which rages on the sea

I'll lash the toadies of the court

I'll leave her corpse upon the throne

With blood I'll wash away her crimes

AEgisthus shall join her swift and sure

If only I'd not wasted so much time

If only I had practiced for this day

Orestes: Peace Elektra

Elektra: You know my name?

Orestes: I am your brother

Chorus: What news is this?

Orestes: I have deceived you, forgive me

I knew not the state of this land

If Clytemnestra's spies were everywhere

I dared not hope to find a friend

Even here at the grave of Agamemnon

Chorus: The grief that Elektra showed

Orestes: Could only have come from my sister

Elektra: Orestes, you are alive

I feel the tears of sorrow I have shed

Melt into a font of joy

Like a pool swelled from a bitter shower

But tell me, why have you come?

Orestes: Long did I spend in the court of Strophius

Where I sharpened my skill

I studied among the poets and sophists

I practiced gymnastics with athletes

I learned to fight with the soldiers and slaves

Many of whom had fought the siege of Troy

Every year your admonishment would come

In every pen stroke I felt the force of your rage

They were the world's own weight

That I, as Atlas, was born to bear

As my eighteenth year drew close

My majority, I could be king

I wondered if my cause was just

To kill one's own mother, hellish crime

The woman who had bore and nursed me

Yet to leave my father's death unavenged

Both evils; which was the greater?

What would the gods think of this matter?

Chorus: The dilemma is great

Orestes: And so I sought the word of the gods

To Delphi, to the oracle I went

I asked were it lawful to kill my mother

Should I leave my father without redress

Chorus: A wise choice

Elektra: You dared to doubt me?

Orestes: I did. It might seem different to the gods

Then to you, or to I, or to any matter of men

But to the brilliant god who sees all things

He shall know the truth and aid me in predicament

The seer in her cave told this

Your father's blood must be avenged

I've crept here like a thief

To steal our family's honor back

Chorus: What will you do?

Orestes: I'll go into our home as I have come here

I, the messenger to announce Orestes' death

Joy will reign within the court

As Clytemnestra comes forward for the urn

I'll bury my dagger in her breast

Chorus: That breast that nursed you

Elektra: And nursed a hatred for our father

Chorus: Also true, inconstant is the heart

Filled with love and hate, all turn between them

Elektra: Strong the spirit, the capacity for justice

Stay constant Orestes, and be brave

Your sacrifice is made unto the gods

Sweet will be the hecatomb of Clytemnestra's pyre

Orestes: Weak willed and frightened I go to my task

Comforted by the words of my sister and a god

Elektra: Go with Apollo's strength and my love

(Exit Orestes, Silence for a moment)

Elektra: Please Apollo make him strong and brave

Chorus: You fear your brother will falter

Elektra: My heart is filled with anticipation

I am awake, alive, justice will soon be brought

What if Orestes should lose his nerve?

Chorus: What if he should succeed?

Elektra: Our goal achieved, Orestes will be king

Our ancestor's grave shall be worshipped once more

A suitable match shall be found for me

(Silence)

Chorus: How long the wait

Elektra: I tremble in fear

Chorus: Every minute feels an hour

Elektra: An hour would be unto a year

(Silence)

Elektra: He's failed, I know he's failed

His hand faltered before the blow

Clytemnestra's seen through his disguise

They've killed or captured him

Chorus: Those are the whispered words of fear

Elektra: You're right, he is my brother

He knows my love, he knows his duty

I know that he will succeed

Chorus: Yet you fear

Elektra: Doubt seems to burrow in my heart

As a mole tunneling into the earth

Blind fear, this unnamed dread

(Silence)

Chorus: Time passes slowly

As a flower opening after rain

A feather blown upon the breeze

Nervous the heart, this promised day

The springtime about to bloom

A long anticipated season not quite here

Elektra: My heart is beating violently

Every instant feels like a downpour

Beating upon the open sea

Chorus: Were Orestes hear to bring news

The battle lost or won it would not matter

The terror is in the unknown

That is what causes the heart to stop

Is this the darkness that brings the dawn

Or the eerie calm that comes before the storm

(Silence)

Elektra: Is that him?

Chorus: A mouse scampers in the field

Elektra: What's that noise?

Chorus: Nothing but the song of wind

(Silence)

Elektra: Will he not come, will this task not end?

This trial, my mother's sentence, when will it come?

When will her debt be paid?

(Silence)

Chorus: Time passes slowly

As an autumn leave fluttering to the earth

Flakes of snow drifting down

See how our hands tremble

Is this day the end of our dreams

Is life to be ended in its prime?

I fear the dreaded season is upon us

Elektra: Oh shackles of patience, I hate them

I am filled with fear and dread

But powerless, as if I am held in a cage

(Enter Orestes, looking bedraggled)

Chorus: Orestes!

Elektra: Relief is a well that flows from my heart

The delight the joy of seeing you, Orestes

Is your work done? Have you killed our mother?

Has the wicked Clytemnestra breathed her last?

Orestes: I am sorry Elektra, forgive me

I could not do it, I could not slay her

I stepped and slew AEgisthus without regret

He turned and groaned with dying breath

I saw the surprise as victory was snatched from him

His long dreamt happiness, Orestes dead

Face first he lay upon the palace steps

A stream of blood, in cascades began

From that the entire court turned ashen and scattered

They left me alone with our mother

I saw the look of terror in her eyes

Those eyes had gazed upon me lovingly in my cradle

Those eyes had watched me take my first steps

And weak as those infant steps grew my arms

I stabbed, but my blow was like a child's

I heard her shriek, I heard her scream

I dropped my dagger, turned and fled

Tears marred my eyes, I was remorse

Elektra: Oh coward you shameless coward

I shall be the man that you are not

Orestes: Elektra please, she is our mother

(Exit Elektra)

Orestes: I could not do it

I could not kill the woman who gave me life

Chorus: Your sister will

Orestes: I cannot stop her, no force of nature could

She's like a full force gale, a raging fire

She's not subject to the will of man or god

I cannot save my mother

Chorus: Then she will surely die

Orestes: As all will, someday

Sister to Castor and Pollex

Sister to Helen of Troy

The faithless wife of Agamemnon

So great, so terrible a woman

I cannot save my mother

Chorus: You wish you could

Orestes: Weak willed and fearful, I dare not confront

Kill my mother to please my sister

Stop my sister to please my mother

One gave me life, one saved my life

Clytemnestra would have robbed me of life

But Elektra, she has done worse to me

Brutal family filled with hate

Is there no love for me? I am alone

Could I but fly above the mountains

Or sail beyond the ocean sea

Chorus: Even there your fate would remain

Beyond the land, or air or ocean sea is conscience

The sense of duty haunts both man and god

Orestes: I can only be free for a short time

Among you here at my Father's tomb

Miserable man, I hardly knew him

Unhappy spent years outside Troy's gates

Unhappy died by his wife's dagger

Breathed his last in her tender arms

Only one brief moment of victory

When he was the conquering King of Troy

Wretched fate, was this my moment?

To shine heroic among my mother's screams

Was that victory?

(Enter Elektra)

Elektra: Behold the head of Clytemnestra

Behold those eyes that hid deception

Behold the tresses that charmed AEgisthus

Behold the tongue which spread poison

Where is your treachery now?

What have your lies earned you?

What has all your wickedness bought?

Orestes: What have you done?

Elektra: There was horror in her eyes when she saw me

She grasped your dagger, and tried to stand

But had lost much blood, and collapsed

The blade clattered on the palace floor

I snatched your dagger from the ground

And thrust it into her back

Her tortured screams were a sweet melody

Like gentle pipes her dying gasps

Orestes: Clytemnestra, my mother

I am a beast, no worse than a beast

For no animal would devour his parent

I have become a monster

(Orestes runs off stage)

Elektra: I pinned false hopes on you

You're more of Clytemnestra than of our father

Weak willed and fearful, you loved her

Despite her gross inhuman crime

What good such love? You see her fate

Let the dogs come to lick her blood

Let the vultures pick her bones

She'll not defile my daddy's grave.

(Elektra turns and walks offstage.)


End file.
